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Diva rampage: Damage to trains to hit commuters hard

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Commuters block service lines and vandalise property after rail traffic in Mumbai was disrupted by public protests in Diva on Friday
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The after-effects of the mob violence at Diva might haunt Central Railway commuters for some more days to come. Officials said that 10 rakes were 'extensively' damaged and procuring spares for them would be a task not attempted in the railways for a long time now.

In fact, all of Friday evening, officials of Kurla car shed as well as electrical department, where the 12 rakes were taken for repairs, were on the hotline with Western Railway authorities to give them spares from the Bombay Central and Kandivali car sheds.

Diva witnessed commuter rage on Friday as irate passengers indulged in arson, pelted stones at police and staged a 'rasta roko' after train services on Central Railway route were disrupted due to technical failure, prompting the police to cane-charge the protestors.

According to sources, a letter was also shot to Siemens to supply spares at short notice as a special case with railways requesting that the paperwork for the purchase be done later.

According to an estimate by CR, the items damaged include 9 look-out glasses (the glass pane in front of the motorman cabin), 20 pressure gauges (that show various kinds of pressure of the rake), 8 Man Machine Interface (the control panel in the motorman cabin), 35 Internal Display boards inside coaches, 12 speedometers, 18 headlights and 200 window panes.

Of the damaged rakes, 9 are of Siemens make and one was a retrofitted one.

A CR statement late Friday evening said that 'CR will also be facing difficulty in running scheduled suburban services on mainline i.e. CST-Kalyan-Kasara/Karjat/Khopoli till such time the rakes are put into service after repairs.'

CR runs its mainline and harbour services with a fleet of around 138 rakes, many of which have to be kept as standby or are in various car sheds for repairs.

The agitation saw a total of 134 trains being cancelled, of which 70 were from CST, 54 were going towards CST and 10 Thane shuttles. Workers have been brought in from Matunga workshop as well as Sanpada car shed and they have been asked to work through the night to ensure some of the major repairs can be completed by the weekend.

Speaking to dna, Shailendra Kumar, divisional railway manager, WR, confirmed that a request had come in. "We have been asked for two look-out glass - and also two pieces of the Man Machine Interface. We will do everything to help," said Kumar.

"It is almost a re-run of the post 26/7 floods of 2005 when we lost so many rakes to marooning that it took us almost a week to get our services on schedule. If the spares don't come in time, we are looking at some very erratic schedules in the next few days," said a top-ranking CR official.

DNA solutions:
Make Mumbai zone of both Central and Western Railways into a separate zone with its own general manager.

Set up a committee on suburban railways under chief minister with GMs, DRMs and other top functionaries as members

Create a mechanism in the railway board to fast-track Mumbai's projects

Station redevelopment and land development to garner funds for suburban railways

New rail lines like Virar-Panvel and additional lines beyond Kalyan

Staggered office timings so that the morning rush hour load is minimised

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